A trial date is expected to be set by the end of the week as the next step in the Sovereign oil and gas company's lawsuit against Broomfield's controversial, voter-approved five-year moratorium on fracking.

Sovereign is suing, claiming an agreement it had in place before the measure was approved by voters in November should be exempt from the moratorium. Sovereign in 2013 planned to drill new wells in Broomfield, but was not able to because of the passage of the moratorium.

Sovereign is expected to work with the Broomfield court in setting the trial date the end of this week, but the trial likely will not be for six to 12 months, if not further in the future, said Broomfield city and county attorney Bill Tuthill.

"These things take time," Tuthill said.

During that time, Sovereign and other oil and gas companies will be prohibited from fracking in Broomfield.

If a judge rules in Sovereign's favor, the company would be able to continue its drilling plans, Tuthill said.

Setting a trial date is required as part of the court process, but the issue might not end up going to court, he said.

Regardless of whether the issue goes through a long court process, Sovereign and Broomfield still have several issues to work out.

Sovereign argues its drilling plans were illegally put on hold because the company entered into a legal agreement, known as a memorandum of understanding, before the moratorium was passed. That agreement would have enabled the company to drill in Broomfield under strict regulations.

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Tom Metzger, chief operating officer of Sovereign, has said he will not comment on the matter because the company wants the legal process to play out in court.

Broomfield and Sovereign in April signed an agreement to allow a judge to determine whether Sovereign is subject to the moratorium.

The lawsuit likely will focus mostly on that one issue, but Sovereign has other problems with Broomfield's fracking moratorium that might be later addressed in court.

Sovereign also claims the moratorium violates state law, that Broomfield does not have the authority to place moratorium fracking, that the moratorium is a breach of contract and that the company is potentially entitled to damages of tens of millions of dollars, Tuthill said.

According to documents filed in Broomfield District Court, Sovereign states it should not be subject to the moratorium because of the company's pre-existing contract with Broomfield. It would have allowed Sovereign to drill 21 new wells at 10 sites in Broomfield, Tuthill said.

The measure that halted fracking for five years in Broomfield, Question 300, was petitioned onto the ballot by Our Broomfield, a grassroots group with concerns about the impacts of fracking on health and environment. It rallied to get the question on the ballot in response to Sovereign's plans to frack wells in the North Park area near Prospect Ridge Academy.

Broomfield has 97 active wells. The companies running those wells, such as Anadarko, Encana and Sovereign, have drilled in Broomfield in the past, but haven't used fracking procedures on those sites since summer 2013, when the fracking moratorium was placed on the ballot.

However, some of those wells are still producing, and would be subject to state and local inspections, Deputy City and County Attorney Tami Yellico said.

City Council also has discussed plans to hire oil and gas inspectors, in part because of the possibility that Sovereign could prevail in its lawsuit.

The inspectors, who would be hired on contract and would not be city employees and would make sure companies follow Broomfield's oil and gas regulations.

The inspectors also would be in charge of examining existing oil and gas operations, which were in place before the fracking moratorium, Yellico said.

Broomfield isn't the only city dealing with fracking-related lawsuits.

Two Lafayette residents on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking immediate enforcement of a fracking ban passed by the city's voters in November.

Sixty percent of Lafayette voters in November supported the measure that bans any new oil and gas extraction in the city.

About a month after the election, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association filed a lawsuit against Lafayette seeking to negate the ban.

The new lawsuit, filed in Boulder District Court on Tuesday, names the state, Gov. John Hickenlooper and COGA as defendants and seeks the dismissal of the COGA suit.

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